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Debut DRTV campaign smashes fundraising targets

Prostate Cancer UK

Men's lives shouldn't be left to chance

What we achieved

  • Strategy

    Campaign Strategy

  • Creative

    Proposition & Messaging, Creative Approach

  • Production

    DRTV Film Production, Direction, Social Content

With big ambitions to enter the competitive DRTV market for the first time, we partnered with Prostate Cancer UK to define their place with a bold and unique campaign.

The result is a powerful fundraising proposition, unique to their brand and led by audience insight; Men’s lives shouldn’t be left to chance. Brought to life through a stand-out DRTV advert, the first 2 weeks beat ROI, SMS and CPA fundraising targets – and earned a prime daytime feature on ITV News as part of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.

Understanding the market

DRTV can be a highly competitive market for charities entering for the first time – and for cancer charities in particular.

So, we worked closely with Prostate Cancer UK to understand the uniqueness of their brand and target audiences in order to identify their strategic opportunity.

We found that their target audience, 50+ men, although broad and diverse, share a range of values, interests and motivations that set them apart from the more typical DRTV audiences of their competitors.

As a result, we developed a creative solution that moves away from typical DRTV, and leans into the uniqueness of the brand’s audience and brand opportunity. 

Raw London have really understood Prostate Cancer UK and what we are trying to achieve. Also, throughout, it’s been really apparent that they ‘get’ fundraising and I’m so excited to see the campaign launch.

Amanda Froude, Innovation Manager at Prostate Cancer UK

Understanding audiences

We understand that getting men talking about cancer can be challenging. In fact, our work with Macmillan Cancer Support, Guy’s Cancer Research and Anthony Nolan tackles exactly that.

This presents interesting creative challenges for Prostate Cancer UK, and highlights the importance of insight and authenticity in connecting with donors and audiences on a deeper and more emotional level.

Starting with men’s stories

Our creative strategy started with real stories of men affected by prostate cancer. Through this insight, we found that one theme kept cropping up time and time again; the idea of coincidence, luck – or chance.

This insight became the foundation of our concept, and gave us powerful creative territory to explore alongside DRTV fundraising success drivers;

  • Linear narrative: If knowledge and understanding of prostate cancer is the solution, then chance is the problem.
  • Urgent jeopardy: Without knowledge, too much is left up to chance and men’s lives are at risk.
  • Clear, tangible CTA: Eliminating chance as a product of the solution gives tangibility and clarity.

Developing the creative concept

With all this in mind, we landed on our fundraising proposition; Men’s lives shouldn’t be left to chance. The idea explores the concept of odds through theme of injustice: 1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer, and the odds only get worse if you’re Black, over 50 or if it runs in your family.

We then developed this into our DRTV advert, ‘If I had a pound’. Led by a heartfelt plea from a consultant, the film portrays a tone of injustice. Speaking straight to camera, he implores for change, before offering a tangible solution from Prostate Cancer UK.

In the first 2 weeks of launching the campaign in partnership with MediaLab, Prostate Cancer UK achieved some fantastic results. For example, quickly surpassing SMS targets, an initial 17.5 ROI on PPC, and an early £101 CPA (without full attribution).

The campaign was also integrated across the organisation, and picked up by their PR and comms teams to earn a prime daytime feature on ITV News as part of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.

I would sincerely like to thank and congratulate Prostate Cancer UK for this superb advert. ‘If I had a pound’ is both an extremely powerful and moving message. I am a 12 year prostate cancer survivor who, like the advert says, had no symptoms.

The advert is the best I have ever seen in getting the powerful message across and will hopefully help thousands of men avoid the trauma of being diagnosed too late. Well done to everyone involve in making, promoting and delivering the advert.

Online Comment from Prostate Cancer UK Supporter

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